Michael D. Meloan

It is the near future, and a genetic research team from the NIH is asked
by the Vatican to use the latest findings of the Human Genome Project to
shed new light on the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. The lead
researcher, Robert Strickland M.D., is an agnostic with spiritual
leanings. But as the inquiry proceeds, it appears that this is indeed
the burial cloth of the historical Jesus — and the vestment’s
bloodstains
open up the possibility of cloning. The ensuing investigative
journey — from Washington D.C., to Israel, to Belize — has
global
repercussions, and transforms the lives of all involved.

The Shroud is
an adventure novel in the vein of Carl Sagan’s Contact — exploring
many of
today’s news-making scientific, spiritual, and ethical questions. The
story has no sectarian agenda. At bottom, the message is one of
decoupling spirituality from religious dogma, while better exploring
mystical and transcendent pursuits with cutting edge technology.
The
Shroud resonates with the works of Deepak Chopra, Michael
Crichton, and
Stephen Hawking.

Michael studied at the graduate level in Bio-Medical Engineering at USC,
and
was a Project Engineer at the Aerospace Corporation. His fiction has
appeared in Wired, Buzz, LA Weekly, and in a number
of
anthologies.

He
was an interview subject in the documentary Bukowski: Born Into
This,
and has collaborated with NPR monologue artist, Joe Frank, as well as
having co-written a tech-thriller screenplay with actor Michael O’Keefe
(Academy Award nominee for his work in The Great Santini, and
recently
seen in Michael Clayton).